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Joint United Nations and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has insisted a ceasefire agreement in Syria is ‘very much alive’ despite widespread reports of shelling of rebel-held towns and claims from the opposition that pro-government forces killed 1,000 people in the eight days before the truce was due to begin.

Massacre reports: Damaged buildings in the old city of Homs (Picture: Reuters)

Western powers had indicated that the UN and Arab League-backed ceasefire plan, nominally supported by the Syrian army and rebels, was the last chance for a diplomatic solution to a brutal crackdown by the government upon a 13-month long uprising.

On Tuesday the French foreign ministry said Syria’s claims it had withdrawn troops from populated areas – a precondition of the truce agreement before a full ceasefire on Thursday April 12 – was a ‘flagrant and unacceptable lie’.

According to the main opposition group the Syrian National Council (SNC) at least 1,000 people had been killed by pro-government troops since Mr Annan unveiled the timeline for the ceasefire on April 2.

Kofi Annan is welcomed to the Syrian refugee camp at Yayladagi in Hatay on the Turkish-Syrian border (Picture: AFP/Getty)

SNC spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said 160 people were killed on Monday alone and warned of a ‘dramatically deteriorating’ humanitarian situation in the country.

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But speaking as the conflict threatened to not only develop into a full-blown civil war but also become a regional crisis with deaths in Turkey and Lebanon as a result of Syrian troops opening fire, Mr Annan said there was still hope for the ceasefire agreement.

‘We still have time between now and April 12 to stop the violence,’ he said at a news conference on the Turkish border.

The former UN secretary general added of the ceasefire plan: ‘If you want to take it off the table, what would you replace it with?’

Sergei Lavrov (right) after talks with Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem. Not only is Russia Syria’s last major European ally, Syria is Russia’s key ally in the Middle East (Picture: Reuters)

Reports earlier claimed on Tuesday the Syrian army was bombarding the city of Homs and Marea in Aleppo province.

The reports of violence come a day after the year-long conflict fatally spilled over into Turkey and Lebanon.

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Two refugees were shot dead in Turkey by Syrian forces firing over the border between the two countries, while in Lebanon TV journalist Ali Shaaban was also shot dead in a separate incident.

Six people were injured in the refugee camp shooting at Kilis, in Gaziantep, south-eastern Turkey, which is home to around 24,000 Syrian refugees.

Speaking from China, Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country was considering measures ‘we don’t want to think about’ in response to the border infringement. More than 24,000 Syrian refugees are currently in Turkey.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Syrian president Mr al-Assad agreed to former UN secretary general Mr Annan’s peace plan last week, but scepticism from western powers saw the government add a new stipulation that rebels promise in writing to lay down their arms first.

Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN and current Security Council president, told CNN the UN-Arab League plan, which would have seen a full ceasefire by April 12 and then called for talks to find a political solution, was the ‘last viable chance for there to be a negotiated settlement’.

‘The questionâ¦ is will the violence continue and can this worst case scenario of a potential full-scale civil war still be possibly averted by a diplomatic approach,’ she said.

‘We still hope that that’s possible. We still want to give that a final chance, but I don’t think that we or anybody else are particularly optimistic.’

The UN says 9,000 people have died in the Syrian government’s brutal crackdown upon an uprising that began 13 months ago, with Syrian opposition groups putting the death-toll at up to 11,000.